In homes or buildings that house household pets, such as cats and dogs, a pet door opening is generally provided in a door that leads to a lower level or basement. Basements are typically an area in a home where pet needs and provisions, such as feed, water, waste management and bedding, are kept to accommodate such pets due to odor, space shortage or other inconveniences that would be present if such items would be contained in the living areas of the home. The general purpose of the pet door opening in a door leading to a lower level or basement, therefore, is to accommodate the pet in having free access to their litter boxes or containers to allow them to relieve themselves or to eat and sleep.
However, in their travel to the lower level of the household, such as a basement, the pets must enter and exit the pet door opening in the stairway door wherein they immediately encounter the first step of the stairway leading to the lower level. Typically, their momentum going through the pet door opening will carry them onto the first and second steps much too quickly. Due to the poor ergonomic configurations in approaching the first and second steps, however, the risk of a fall down the stairs leading to pet injuries is substantially increased. What is needed then is a device or apparatus that will provide improved ergonomic pet access to the stairs. This risk can be minimized by offering them a safe passage down the stairway, and more specifically, by providing a device or apparatus that will safely direct their path of travel and slow down their momentum when entering the stairway from the pet door opening. Such an apparatus will offer them a footstep platform upon which to pause after passing through a pet door opening at the top of a stairway.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a stairway pet apparatus for a household pet that will lower the risk of injury to the pet when it is traveling from a pet door opening down the stairway to a lower level of the household. Another object of the invention is to provide a stairway pet apparatus that is simple in operation and that can attach itself to the back side of the door that leads to the lower level stairway of the household or building. And yet another object of the disclosure herein is to provide a stairway pet apparatus that can be folded and/or collapsed to mitigate and/or avoid the situation where the stairway pet apparatus itself can become an obstacle by limiting human access or preventing the full opening or functioning of the stairway door.